Weird Stuff in the Bible

I had three listeners send me the same video in a 24-hour span. Which means you have my attention. And they all thought this would be right in line with the podcast here, which means it’s gonna get weird.

And what was the video? I’ll play it for you later, but this video claims that in the end times- as Jesus describes them in Luke 21- there will be great signs in the heavens. And that the Greek terms for these signs in the heavens can be translated as monsters coming out of the sky.

In fact, I’ll quote it for you from the New King James:

Luke 21:11

there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven

Is this true? Did Jesus prophesy that the end times will see sky monsters?

What are these signs in the heavens that will perplex and terrify the people?

Are they UFOs? The third kind? Did Jesus just spoil the next Avengers movie?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to Luke 21, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

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Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

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You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

1:15 - Rick Renner’s Claim

4:50 - From Heaven

10:30 - Fearful Sights

15:10 - Help from the Septuagint

20:25 - So What’s Coming in the End Times?

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

I was not able to put together a new episode for today, so I am re-sharing a popular episode from the past. Look for a new episode next week that dives into Luke 21 and Jesus' prophecy of the "sky monsters."

In today's episode: Something really strange happened when Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

This is the night that Jesus was put on trial, and the next day He was nailed to the cross. So there’s a lot going on. it’s a very heavy section of scripture. And there’s one detail that’s only recorded in one of the four Gospels. 

Mark 14:51 and 52 say

51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

Now if you’re a normal, well-adjusted person, you probably read a strange verse like that, you say: “well that’s weird”- and then you just move along with your Bible reading.

But the listeners of this podcast are not normal, well-adjusted people. 

So let’s figure out today what’s up with the naked man who shows up in the garden when Jesus was arrested.

Because I find it to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to Mark 14, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

1:00 - The Context

4:40 - Theory 1- Simply a Historical Detail

13:30 - Theory 2- Mark Himself

15:30 - Theory 3- A Miracle

22:45 - Theory 4- All of Them Together at Once I Suppose

23:35 - Mailbag

26:00 - The Naked Truth

Special thanks to the Two Witnesses Live podcast for inviting me on their show recently! Here is a link if you’d like to see/hear it: https://www.youtube.com/live/Mh0bTZhUKwk?si=vqVdx6KZx9tQIZSo

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

I have a special episode for you all today, it’s a conversation with an experienced deliverance expert, Beatty Carmichael. He is a Bible teacher and has served as a deliverance minister, and he specializes in exposing the spiritual roots behind conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, addiction and chronic pain.

He’s got a simple, step-by-step path to breakthrough from these things in his book, The Prayer of Freedom. Listen to our conversation today to find out how lasting healing comes when demonic oppression is cast out and God’s freedom is restored. Beatty Carmichael joins me today to share his process with us on the Weird Stuff in the Bible podcast.

Find his book right here: https://theprayeroffreedom.com

You can WATCH today's interview at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exT7QM-td8Y

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

King Solomon had to be crazy. 300 wives. That’s 300 anniversaries to keep track of, 600 in-laws, and being told to pick your underwear up off the floor 900 times every day. I’ve never met anyone who thought that 300 wives sounded like a good idea. Doesn’t seem very wise. If any of us wanted advice for anything, we probably aren’t asking the guy who got married 300 times. 

And yet, we do, because this is the guy who wrote the quintessential book of the bible on wisdom- Proverbs. And then he also wrote the sexual manual- Song of Solomon. That one isn’t so surprising. And then later he wrote the most depressing book of the Bible- Ecclesiastes. But that’s a lot more understandable when you remember- the guy had 300 wives.

If you go to the New Testament, one of the qualifications for a pastor is that he must be “the husband of but one wife.” Fair enough. Yet turn back to the Old Testament and it’s full of godly men who would have failed this test for spiritual leadership.

It wasn’t just Solomon. Abraham, Jacob, Esau, Gideon. Even David. David who wrote most of the psalms. David who was called “a man after God’s own heart.” David who was the king- not of Utah- but God’s nation of Israel.

Why did so many ancient figures- even what we would call biblical heroes- have multiple wives?

And more importantly to us- why does it seem like God was OK with it? 

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to Genesis 2, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

https://luketaylorpodcasts.creator-spring.com

Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/

You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

2:30 - The Origin of Marriage

4:50 - How to Read the Bible

9:20 - God’s Institution of Marriage

14:40 - Forbidden for Kings and Pastors

18:55 - Forbidden for Everyone Else!

23:50 - God’s Silence

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

When you’re a Christian, you believe certain things about God. That the Bible reveals God to us. That God is morally perfect. That God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

But also, in the Old Testament, that God allowed slavery.

Wait wait wait. Wait a minute. We all know that slavery is wrong. 

We had a Civil War about it, we had Martin Luther King Jr, we had like four Planet of the Apes movies to teach us why slavery is wrong.

And yet Old Testament Israel includes people who were slaves, Old Testament laws regulating the use of slaves, and even this shocking command from Moses in

Exodus 21:20-21

20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

So wait- is Moses saying that it’s OK to beat your slave, as long as you don’t kill him?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to Exodus 21 and Leviticus 25, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

https://luketaylorpodcasts.creator-spring.com

Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/

You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

1:30 - Slavery in the Old Testament

4:30 - Jubilee Years and the Mosaic Economy

10:50 - Differences from Chattel Slavery

14:25 - Laws Regulating the Treatment of Slaves

24:40 - Newsletter & Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

I hope you enjoy your bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, your gummy bears, your Hawaiian Pizza, your Shrimp Tacos, your Crab Rangoons, and your Sausage Egg McMuffins. Because all of these foods are forbidden under the Old Testament law.

Thankfully, we don’t live under the Old Testament law!

Although I do still think we should forbid ham and pineapple pizza. I probably would be willing to go back under the Old Testament law to stop pineapple on pizza. But it’s not up to me. It’s up to Jesus. And Jesus said in:

Acts 10:15

What God has made clean, do not call common.

Why did Jesus have to say this in the New Testament? Because back in the Old Testament, God had declared certain foods to be unclean- and therefore forbidden to eat.

But the list seems a little random. Scholars have puzzled and debated for centuries over why certain foods were acceptable and certain foods weren’t. 

God gave the Israelites these rules as they set off on their journey through the desert after they left Egypt. And apparently, God didn’t want them stopping at a Red Lobster as they were wandering through the wilderness.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Leviticus 11, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

https://luketaylorpodcasts.creator-spring.com

Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/

You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

2:00 - Eat What You Want

4:45 - Leviticus 11’s Clean and Unclean Animals

8:45 - The Health and Sanitation Theory

9:50 - The Religious Theory

11:00 - The Mixture Theory

17:00 - The Ethics Theory

21:20 - Next Time and Closing Thoughts 

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

OK so my brother Ben sent me this comment over the summer:

Why did God have a problem with the Tower of Babel but not us going to the moon?

That’s because we never went. That’s Biblical. Put that in your library and smoke it.

Now that’s actually a really smart question Ben. I don’t really know what the library part meant but you got my gears turning with the first part. A lot of us hear the story of the Tower of Babel as kids, the story about a group of people who tried to build a tower that reached heaven. 

And God said He wasn’t going to allow mankind to do this. It’s a really fascinating comment God makes

In Genesis 11:6

…this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

God slapped this down pretty hard. He confused the speech of the peoples, which means He switched up all their languages, and therefore they couldn’t finish the project so they all went their separate ways, and now that’s why now we have to take 4 semesters of French class to get a Bachelor of Arts degree.

So why did God have such a strong reaction to this? Why did He literally say that if the Tower of Babel was constructed, mankind would truly become capable of anything? I mean, just because of a tall building?

If the problem with the Tower of Babel was just about altitude, then yes, space travel raises a lot of theological questions for us.

But what if the Tower of Babel is not what we thought? What if the problem with the Tower of Babel was not how high it reached, but what it was capable of doing?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to Genesis 11, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

https://luketaylorpodcasts.creator-spring.com

Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/

You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

2:00 - The Full Story

10:15 - What Did Babel’s Tower Do?

14:45 - Ziggurats and Pyramids

21:30 - Gaps in My Pyramid

23:15 - Mailbag

26:00 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

Paul’s thorn in the flesh. This is a mysterious phrase Paul uses that has stumped commentators for centuries. 

In II Corinthians 12:7, Paul writes

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Paul experienced some kind of hardship in his life- and what exactly it was, we don’t know. A sickness, a demonic attack, some kind of earthly trial or hardship, we aren’t entirely sure. That’s the part that commentators theorize about- and that’s NOT the part I want to focus on today.

I’m more interested in where it came from. Now you say: well Luke, it’s obvious where it came from- it came from the devil. Paul right there said it was a messenger of Satan.

Sure. But why was it given to Paul? He said it was to keep him from getting conceited, which means prideful or arrogant. 

Now let me ask you a question: is Satan interested in keeping us from becoming too prideful or arrogant? No! Satan wants us more prideful, not less. Satan wants us full of ourselves. Satan wasn’t interested in helping Paul be more humble. God is the one who wants that.

Which means that this evil spirit was allowed into Paul’s life by God. The Lord allowed this evil spirit to go after Paul

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to II Corinthians 12, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

https://luketaylorpodcasts.creator-spring.com

Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/

You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

2:00 - Breaking Down the Context

10:30 - God’s Sovereignty Over Evil Spirits

17:30 - Evil Spirits as a Tool

21:30 - Newsletter

23:00 - Sometimes It’s Not Our Own Sin

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

Paul uses a phrase that I don’t quite know how to interpret, because it’s the only place in the whole Bible that uses this phrase.

II Corinthians 12:2 reads

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven

Wait, who was this guy?

What is the third heaven?

And what happened to the first two?

I mean, some of us know about the Seventh Heaven, if we spent a little too much time watching cheesy Stephen Collins family dramas on the WB as kids. I’d kind of like to forget about that one. 

But I DO want to know more about this third heaven, because I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible. 

Turn to II Corinthians 12, and let’s get weird.

Check out the website! www.weirdstuffinthebible.com

Visit the Weird Stuff store!

https://luketaylorpodcasts.creator-spring.com

Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:

https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/

You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.

0:00 - Introduction

1:00 - Paul’s Humility in Boasting

10:30 - The Third Heaven

14:50 - Next Time & Mailbag

19:45 - The Rapture of Philip

22:50 - Chris M from Boston

If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

If you'd like to listen to "God and His Prophets: A verse-by-verse study through the Bible’s major and minor prophets," you can find it wherever you find this podcast.

You can also visit this link: https://godandhisprophets.transistor.fm/

God and His Prophets is a verse-by-verse Bible study podcast exploring the mysterious prophets and prophetic texts of the Bible.

Each episode unpacks Scripture, helping you understand the cultural context, spiritual meaning, and modern relevance of the prophetic books. Whether you’re a Bible nerd, a small group leader, or just trying to make sense of the books people usually skip- this podcast will guide your journey.

Hosted by Luke Taylor, this study began with the Book of Ezekiel and continues through the rest of the major and minor prophets, one verse at a time.

New episodes release Mondays. Subscribe today and join the exploration! 

Popular subjects will include:
• Verse-by-verse study through the prophets
• Prophetic Profiles on Old Testament prophets
• Minor prophets teaching
• End times theology
• Connections to the book of Revelation explained

Host: Luke Taylor

Note: This podcast was formerly published as Cross References and The Book of Ezekiel: A Cross References Bible Study.